Adventure Coaching - the new magazine dedicated to the adventure coach
Added: (Fri Nov 04 2005)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
Adventure coaching is a new approach to coaching that combines powerful personal change with outdoor adventure.
Clay Lowe and Peter Freeth are the creators of Adventure Coaching - both the magazine and the concept itself.
Clay Lowe first had the idea for an adventure coaching experience whilst taking part in an adventure race on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo.
"When I first conceived of the idea of an outdoor adventure coaching program, I was standing on the top of Mount Kinabalu watching the sun break the horizon. I had just finished a tiring 10 day charity adventure race. We were there to raise money for Raleigh International’s youth development program for young urban kids who, through getting tangled up with the wrong crowd, had gone off the track, and were now working hard to get back on the right track and stay on.
During the day, we raced, and in the evenings we’d sit around the base camp and tell stories of our ordinary lives back home. Most of the folks, being city types, had never been in the jungle. They were experiencing nature first hand. And from the folks I’d spoke to, the experience was very close, personal, and intense. This combined with being in a developing country, where people still depended on the jungle to provided nourishment and shelter, shifted their perspective. Many began to question if their complicated lives really needed to be so complicated and contrived. I’ve always been a nature-boy and know the effects a stunning piece of scenery can be have on a person, yet I wasn’t prepared for the impact this trip would have."
Clay saw first hand how the outdoor environment changed people's perspectives. Later, on returning to their ordinary lives, these people no longer fitted in. Many resigned from their 9 to 5 jobs and either went travelling or sought work that was more meaningful to them.
Peter's background is in business coaching, and as a leading business coach and author, knew the impact that a transformational coaching process can have on someone's professional performance.
"We wondered if it would be possible to add a specific structure to the adventure coaching environment, so that rather than the environment creating random change that set people off in all kinds of directions, the change and realignment was directed towards specific ambitions and dreams. What we found is that this is exactly how it works - the adventure coaching process literally puts people back on the path to their dreams, and we have had incredible results from it".
Clients of the Ascent adventure coaching experience have included the owner of a financial company, a professional sportswoman, the MD of a recruitment company and many consultants and entrepreneurs, all searching for the answer to a question they couldn't quite put their finger on.
"It's as if they come searching for an answer when they don't even know the question. They know there's something missing in their lives, that they are heading down a road that leads them towards material rewards but away from their dreams. They leave the weekend centred, balanced and at peace with themselves, knowing that being on the right path will take them to the right destination", says Peter.
Of course, the idea of outdoor coaching isn't new. For years there have been outward bound courses, team building events and mountain leadership programs. There have even been some attempts to include life coaching in short breaks, but none of these constitutes adventure coaching.
Adventure Coaching weaves the personal transformation through the outdoor adventure in a seamless way, based loosely on Joseph Campbell's mythology of the hero's journey, where the hero leaves their ordinary world as they answer the call to adventure, face trials and dangers, find the treasure and then return with it to the ordinary world.
"Having proven that adventure coaching is a very real and proven concept, we now want to open the idea up for other people to apply what we have learned, share their own experiences and add to the body of knowledge of this exciting area of personal development", says Clay. "The Adventure Coaching magazine will be online at first, and once we have sufficient interest and contributions we plan to move to a physical magazine format. Right now, we're looking for contributions from anyone involved in coaching or outdoor sports with a passion for personal development."
The Adventure Coaching magazine can be found online at www.adventurecoaching.co.uk